The Climbers: Wu Jing Takes on Everest

China generally has had friendly relations with Nepal, yet it still has found a way to have a territorial dispute with the smaller nation. The area of contention is majestic Mt. Everest. The truth is, the famous mountain peak really ought to be under the jurisdiction of a free and independent Tibetan government. Regardless, producer Tsui Hark and Wu Jing, the star of the Wolf Warrior franchise will do their best to bolster China’s case with Daniel Lee’s The Climbers, which opens today in IMAX and this Friday on conventional screens.

In 1960, Fang Wuzhou led the first Chinese expedition to successfully summit Everest. Unfortunately, they lost their camera and a good portion of their party along the way, so the international mountaineering establishment (including the Soviets who trained them) did not recognize their claims. For a while, the country went utterly insane with Maoist ideology, but by 1975 they were finally ready to mount another Everest campaign.

Fang will be the assault captain. Xu Ying, his college girlfriend and the love of his life, will serve as director of the meteorological team. Qu Songlin will be the deputy chief of the campaign, but he will have effective operational control (since the top boss is basically a political figure head). Qu was a veteran of the campaign, who has never forgiven Fang for saving his angry, bitter hide, instead of the camera. Jiebu will be the third returning veteran from 1960, who will lead the advance team.

As you would expect from anything Tsui produces, The Climbers has plenty of spectacle. Frankly, he and Lee throw so many avalanches and gale force winds at the mountaineers, it is hard to believe they could possibly have the strength to make it to the summit—and safely come back down again. As most fans of mountaineering and alpinist movies can tell you, the descent is the most dangerous part, but that challenge gets skipped over in the film’s coverage of both campaigns.

The stunt work and visual effects are impressive, but The Climbers is not nearly as engaging as other mountain climbing dramas, such as The Himalayas from South Korea and Climber’s High from Japan, because it lacks a human touch. Granted, it is hard to compete with Hwang Jung-min, who is always an electric screen presence, but the characters in Lee’s film always seem distractingly conscious of their roles striving for greater Chinese glory.

Submitted By China: Wolf Warrior 2

Tired of America serving as the “world’s policeman?” Perhaps you would like to have China sub in for a while. Wu Jing is so eager to show us what that might look like, it is downright scary. Yet, somehow, he manages to greatly improve on the first outing for PLA sniper-commando Leng Feng. Things get more personal when his fiancée vanishes while on assignment in Wu’s blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 (trailer here), China’s no-chance-whatsoever official foreign language Academy Award submission, which releases today on DVD and BluRay.

Believe it or not, Wolfy 2 includes maybe a thimble full of critical domestic social commentary—maybe. As the film opens, Leng Feng and his brothers-in-arms are delivering the ashes of their fallen comrade to his home, only to find his family blocking their shrine from a real estate tycoon’s bulldozer. When the sleazebag threatens to make the surviving relatives’ lives miserable, our favorite Wolf Warrior fixes his attitude problem permanently.

Cashiered out of service and convicted of manslaughter, Leng Feng is unable to protect Long Xiaoyun, his former commanding officer and love-of-his-life, when she is ambushed in Africa. All he has left of her is a bullet with a distinctive decorative design. After his release, he disappears into Africa, hoping to match the vanity bullet to a bad guy. Much to his surprise, he gets emotionally involved with several locals, especially his “godson,” Tundu.

When mercenaries hired by a coup-plotting general start running amok, Leng Feng is there to go rogue. With the unofficial support of the PLA, the ex-Wolf Warrior sets off to rescue Dr. Chen, the modern-day Albert Schweitzer who founded the “Chinese-Invested Hospital” (that seems to be its official name) and then liberate the workers at a Chinese factory under siege, including Tundu’s mother. However, instead of Dr. Chen, he winds up with his colleague, Dr. Rachel Prescott Smith, but old Leng seems to find this a fair trade.

Although Wolfy 2 features an honest to goodness flag-waving scene, it still is not nearly jingoistic as its predecessor (the marketing campaign is another story, since it included key art with Wu flipping the world the bird and the tag line: “anyone who offends China, no matter how remote, must be exterminated.”). Still, it is hard to argue with Leng Feng when he tells Dr. Smith the U.S. Marines have up and evacuated, leaving utter bedlam behind. What can we expect, when we have steadily disengaged from the world, over the last eight-plus years?

Of course, most viewers will be more interested in the action, so they will be happy to hear Wu steps it up considerably from the first film. Action directors Sam Hargrave and Wai-leung Wong stage some gritty, adrenaline-charged fight scenes, but it is the way-over-the-top tank battles that really make the film.

Ironically, Wu Jing is more charismatic and likable this time around, even though his character is supposed to be more jaded and disillusioned with life. He also has all the moves and a deceptively thin, but super-cut physique, making him one of the most credible action stars working today. Frank Grillo brings more gusto as the latest western nemesis than Scott Adkins, but it is former wrestler Oleg Prudius and crossover stunt-performer Heidi Moneymaker who really add villainous flair as hench-mercs, Bear and Athena (you’ll be able to guess which is which). Yu Nan appears briefly as the ill-fated Long, but Chinese American Celine Jade develops better rapport with Wu as Dr. RPS. However, Wu Gang does the most to keep the film grounded as He Jianguo, the factory’s world-weary PLA-veteran security director.

In WW2, Wu blows up crap pretty good. He also gives us a peak of the world we have been sliding into. For eight years, we had a policy of isolationism through multilateralism—meaning if anyone might object to the use American power, we would duly defer. Now we have a more honest “America First” brand of isolationism, but it is just as likely to put China in charge mediating the world’s disputes. Wu Jing says they are ready and Jade has a hard time disagreeing. Recommended for the action, not the messaging (but perhaps as a wake-up call), Wolf Warrior 2 is now available on DVD and BluRay.

Call of Heroes: High Noon in Republican China

This time around, action film specialist Benny Chan wears his Spaghetti Western influences/homages on his sleeve, but Sheriff Yang Kenan is cut from cloth much closer to Gary Cooper in High Noon. Yang is given a grim ultimatum: release the murderous son of ruthless warlord Cao Ying or the town of Pucheng will face the consequences. Slowly his neighbors turn against their sheriff, but at least the high plains drifter will throw-in his lot in with Yang in Chan’s Call of Heroes (trailer here) releases today on DVD and BluRay, from Well Go USA.

Dedicated schoolteacher Bai Ling (that’s her character, not the actress) leads a small group of children to sanctuary after the sadistic and entitled Cao Shaolun attacked their school in an act of terror. Following her to Pucheng, Cao kills Bai and two others before Yang captures him. Of course, he is sentenced to death, because he is guilty as sin, but representatives of the Cao forces still demand his freedom. They promise to leave the town undisturbed if they comply, but Yang knows that is a lie. So does Ma Feng, a wandering warrior who has some complicated history with Cao’s Colonel Zhang Yi. He also had some chemistry with Bai, but he realized it too late.

It might be Republican era China, but the dramatic vocabulary of Call is pure spurs-and-saddles American western. It starts at the top with Sean Lau Ching-wan, who is all about a man having to do what a man has to do. He has grit and gravitas worthy of Cooper or Alan Ladd, but he is no superman. He is flesh-and-blood, maybe even distantly approaching middle age, which makes his character so heroic yet relatable.

Eddie Peng Yu-yen continues to mature into a legit action star, showing plenty of chops, but also mixing in a comparatively light sprinkling of physical humor. In all honesty, the growth he has shown since his early teen rom-coms has been impressive. Wu Jing and Xing Yu add plenty of real deal martial arts authenticity as Zhang Yi and hired muscle Wong Wai-fu, respectively. Returning to the sort of villainous roles that actually suit him so well, Louis Koo hams it upshamelessly and goes way-the-heck-and-gone over-the-top as Cao Shaolun—and it’s a blast to watch. Yuan Quan adds some glamour and shows some decent moves of her own as Yang’s wife Chow So-so. In fact, Master Sammo Hung keeps everyone on their toes as action director, choreographing some spectacularly cinematic yet still bone-crunchingly old school martial arts sequences.

Just about every element in Call is borrowed from another film, but it is all executed at a very high level by a superstar ensemble, seen at the peak of their powers and playing to their strengths. For martial arts connoisseurs, it might not be the greatest film they have ever seen, but it is a guaranteed sure thing. Easily recommended for fans of Lau, Peng, Koo, and Hung, Call of Heroes releases today (12/6) on DVD and BluRay, from Well Go USA.

Kill Zone 2: Simon Yam and Wu Jing Together Again, but Different

This sort of an “in name only,” like the kind they often crank out in Bollywood, except Simon Yam almost reprises his hardboiled detective character. In the first S.P.L., he played hard-charging Inspector Chan Kwok-chung, whereas this time around he is steely copper Chan Kwok-wah. They are not same person. In fact, they do not even serve on the same police force, considering the first S.P.L., or Kill Zone as it was renamed for Western territories, took place before the HK handover. Regardless, each Chan is all in favor of taking the fight to the bad guys and he will have two highly trained allies in Soi Cheang’s Kill Zone 2 (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

This Chan is no less driven than his near namesake, but he is also a man of Christian faith. It is quite upsetting for him to see his nephew Chan Chi-kit hooked on smack, but that is one of the perils of undercover work. Under his uncle’s personal supervision, Chi-kit infiltrated an organ trafficking ring, led by Hung Mun-gong a rich weirdo with a bad ticker and a rare blood type. Despite his misgivings Kwok-wah must leave Chi-kit in the field, because he has finally been assigned to an abduction team. The target will be Hung’s own brother.

Thanks to the intervention of uncle and nephew, the HK police stymy the attempted kidnapping, but Chi-kit’s cover is blown in the process. He will get an up-close-and-personal look at their operation when he comes to in the Thai prison secretly holding the abduction victims waiting to be harvested. Inconveniently, Chi-kit is being housed and treated like a common criminal. However, he will have some dealings with Chatchai, an honest prison guard, whose young daughter desperately needs a bone barrow transplant. The crooked warden Ko Chun might have a potential (involuntary) donor for him, but the cost will be his soul.

It is hard to say which is more extreme, action director Li Chung Chi’s intense martial arts sequences featuring Tony Jaa, Wu Jing (also returning from Kill Zone 1, but in a vastly different role), and Zhang Jin (who had the climatic fight with Zhang Ziyi in The Grandmaster), or the nakedly manipulative subplot involving Chatchai’s cute but sickly daughter Sa. Fortunately, the former are spectacularly cinematic and satisfyingly gritty, because the melodrama of the latter gets pretty cheap. Still, it should be conceded Unda Kunteera Thordchanng is highly charismatic and duly heart-rending as Sa. She is effective, but most viewers will instantly resent the scenes built around her.

Happily, there is a massive prison riot right smack dab in the middle of KZ2, giving Jaa, Wu, and Zhang ample opportunity to demonstrate their skills. Frankly, this could very well be Zhang’s breakout film, albeit in the villainous role of Ko Chun. It is pretty awesome watching him go toe-to-toe with both Jaa and Wu. Of course Yam does his thing as Chan Kwok-wah. He flashes some hardcore badness, but he can also deliver a line like “you must have faith, God wouldn’t toy with us,” without it sounding cheesy. Likewise, Louis Koo manages to pull off the shaggy dog pageboy wig and the mumbling persona of Hung Mun-gong, one of the coldest fish bad guys you can ever hope to see.

The martial arts in Kill Zone 2 are everything you could hope for, whereas the final conclusion is so weirdly misconceived and utterly out of place, it becomes an attraction in itself (one that makes you wonder how to say “wtf” in Thai). Recommended for martial arts connoisseurs and fans of the big name cast (as usual, Yam never disappoints), Kill Zone 2 opens this Friday (5/13) in New York, at the Metrograph.

Wolf Warrior: Wu Jing vs. Scott Adkins

Get ready for a steady diet of metaphors telling us lone wolves are most successful traveling in packs, or some such thing. They would be referring to Leng Feng. He is a loose cannon maverick type, but whenever he goes off the reservation, he is doing it for the team. Of course, he makes plenty of enemies that way, including a vengeful drug lord who can afford the best mercenaries money can buy. Their values compare poorly with those of the idealistic Feng, but they still manage to get the drop on his elite commando unit in Wu Jing’s Wolf Warrior (trailer here), which releases today on DVD, BluRay, and digital platforms from Well Go USA.

Just when a Southeast Asian drug raid seems hopelessly lost, Feng takes a spectacular shot (three of them really) to save the day. In the process, he kills the impetuous brother of shadowy crime boss and aspiring global megalomaniac, Min Peng. He should be happy to be rid of such a pathetic tool, but Min Peng rather holds a grunge. Having eluded Chinese forces, the old criminal mastermind hires a team of western mercs, led by the highly skilled Tom Cat, to take out Leng. He also has some conventional world domination business for them to tend, but that is really just a tangent to a tangent.

Arguably, the plan to attack while Leng’s squad is engaged in war-games is sort of clever, since it necessarily means the Wolves will be strictly packing blanks. Unfortunately, that is about the only part of the film that works. Even though the Mainland born Wu rose to prominence in HK film like City Under Siege, Wolf Warrior was clearly conceived as feature length tribute to the PLA. To a man, the Wolves are invariably pure of heart, but also stiflingly dull. Its like the un-self-aware Chinese version of “America, Blank Yeah,” the anthem of Team America World Police, except irony is strictly forbidden.

As a director, Wu gives us a herky-jerky ride, but his martial arts skills remain undiminished. The film is kind of watchable when it shuts up and lets everyone get down to business. When he finally gets to his long anticipated face-off with Scott Adkins’ Tom Cat (a mercenary named after a celebrity couple), it is pretty satisfying. Yet, it is rather strange how much of the film’s action revolves around fire-fights and marksmanship, considering two of the world’s top big screen martial artists are present and accounted for.

At least they have stuff to do. For most of the film, Adkins’ Expendables 2 co-star Yu Nan is stuck wearing an earpiece and biting her lip as she gives tactical advice from the command center. On the other hand, Ni Dahong’s stone cold coolness as the villainous Min Peng is one of the film’s saving graces, even though his transformation from Pablo Escobar to Dr. Evil makes no sense. It also seems slightly odd that he would want to develop a super-virus that only kills Chinese people.

There are rumors floating about online that PLA personnel were required to see Wolf Warriors in theaters, which would explain its success. If so, Wu delivered everything his PLA patrons could have hoped for, often reducing the film to an old school Soviet May Day parade of shiny new military hardware and platitudinous dialogue. Disappointing for anyone who is not a member of the Young Pioneers, Wolf Warriors is strictly for Wu and Adkins completists when it releases today (9/1), from Well Go USA.

Magic to Win: It’s Elemental

If you’re going to borrow from Harry Potter, you might as well do it with pretty girls. This seems to be the logic behind Ip Man helmer Wilson Yip’s foray into campus magic. Frankly, it is a hard strategy to argue with, providing at least a baseline of entertainment throughout the unapologetically perky Magic to Win (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Macy and her cute teammates on Pegasus University’s women’s volleyball team routinely get schooled by their hot mean opponents. However, when a freak accident transfers the magic of the eccentric Professor Hong to her, their losing days are over. The entrepreneurial ladies quickly open up a lucrative sideline, charging to magically goose underdog athletes to victory. Things get a bit out of Macy’s league though when an invisible magician comes asking for her help.

Ling Fung is an earth magician physically dematerialized and robbed of his powers by a renegade fire magician. Despite suffering from amnesia, he has intuitively arrived at the university to seek Hong’s help. He finds Macy instead, which would be a considerable step up if she knew what she was doing. Presumably the fire magician is on his way too, because if he can collect all the forms of elemental magic, something crummy will happen.

After making an international reputation with the Ip Man franchise, Win seems like a radical departure for Yip. It is also appears to push the limits of homage in its more than obvious nods to Star Wars and the 1978 Superman movie. Still, he certainly keeps the proceedings breezy and energetic.

Though a newcomer, Karena Ng is undeniably charming as Macy. Martial arts star Wu Jing (a.k.a. Jacky Wu, so awesome in City Under Siege) has a steely presence well suited to big-screen villainy, but frankly, it would be far more satisfying to watch him kicking butt old school-style than hurling around a bunch of fireballs. Amongst several big name supporting players, Louis Koo is also notably amusing as the wine-soaked wood magician, Gu Xinyue.

Though it often descends into slapstick humor (it gets a little ugly when Ling Fung starts interfering with the fat kid paying to win the decathlon), the visual effects are pretty presentable. In fact, there is a particularly inventive battle between the earth and fire magicians, in which they animate objects from the pages of books (including light-sabers, so take note all young Jedi).

Win is what it is: innocent, goofy, cheesy, harmless, and sometimes endearing. Parents should be forewarned, there is a bit of subtitled cursing, but nothing in anyway explicit. For those looking for a Chinese film fix or a bit of fluffy escapism (but not for Yip’s Ip fans), Win opens this Friday (12/9) in New York at the AMC Empire and in San Francisco at the AMC Cupertino, from China Lion Entertainment. As part of a special promotion, patrons who like their Facebook page or visit their website can get a coupon for two-for-one admissions this holiday season.